Walking the edge
Young Chang
Colette Searls isn’t typically one to take on a musical, but when the
UC Irvine graduate student and director heard that playwright Maria Irene
Fornes’ “Promenade” was being considered for production, she paid
attention.
“I’m a big Irene Fornes fan,” Searls said. “Irene is so alternative
that I thought, ‘Wow, if she’s doing a musical it must be really
different.”’
In its avant-garde, kooky ‘60s-musical sort of way, “Promenade” offers
a look at the world through two prisoners’ eyes.
The show, to be staged by UC Irvine’s theater department in the Studio
Theater, is about two inmates named 105 and 106 who escape their cells
only to willingly return.
They explore the society they’re not supposed to join and meet with
disillusionment and cruelty.
“Instead of being evil characters, they’re extremely innocent,” Searls
said. “They find out where evil comes from and what there is to do and
see. They’re protagonists.”
In a nondescript black-box theater, 105 and 106 offer a critique of
the mentality of the wealthy, the objectification of women, the
entertainment industry and political leaders, to name a few topics.
“It’s not a very plot-driven show,” Searls said. “They find the world
to be fairly contradicting and cruel, and they, in the end, learn that
what they care about is being alive and having compassion.”
Fornes, a New York-based Cuban American and a multiple-time winner of
the Obie Award, is also known for her plays “The Danube,” “Mud” and “The
Conduct of Life” -- shows that are all on the outskirts of mainstream
theater.
Phil Thompson, an assistant professor at UCI’s drama department and
voice and speech director for “Promenade,” calls the show’s script and
scores “rather strange.”
“The language is, I’d say, poetic, but it’s very important that the
audience understands immediately what the words are,” he said. “The words
pose a challenge simply to decipher.”
The music in “Promenade” is appropriately eclectic.
“Some of it is very typical musical theater, but it sort of makes fun
of musical theater,” Searls said. “There are really fun musical numbers
that turn on their own heads -- that are fun but sort of have a dark
twist.”
As a director, Searls said one of her challenges was searching for
where the twists happen both musically and in the characters.
“And we’re dealing with it in a special way,” she said.
To get a cozier effect, musical director Dennis Castellano and Searls
decided to put a live band on stage instead of going for the orchestra
pit. The sound is acoustic, without amplification, but the effect works
as the music travels sufficiently through the Studio Theater’s limited
space.
“I really like intimate theater,” Searls said.
FYI
* What: “Promenade”
* When: 2 and 8 p.m. today and March 9; 8 p.m. March 7 and 8
* Where: UC Irvine’s Studio Theater. The university is at the
intersection of Campus and University drives
* Cost: $10, $8 or $7
* Call: (949) 824-2787
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.